Miscellaneous: When and how the wildflowers bloom

Tuesday

Apr 8, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Mike BodineStaff Writermbodine@ridgecrestca.com

This is the time of year my allergies start kickin' in but its worth it to see the flowers. I get itchy, watery eyes and a cough; luckily I don't get that unsightly covering of flowers and petals on my honker as seen in those commercials for allergy medications that make their annual run. I don't take any of that stuff because I like to sneeze – it just feels good to sneeze. It feels just as good to see the flowers and the color in such a drab place.I didn't think there would be much color with the Rain Gods unhappy, but spring comes one way or the other. Its always been odd to see the thickets of buds and blooms concentrated at the road shoulder. I always thought the exhaust and debris from the asphalt would kill off the delicates. When I shared my fascination with a 20-something, it chuckled and said the flowers are there because the water rolls off the road. The flowers this year are a little stunted, as to be expected. Some flower expert told me that wildflowers will almost always bloom every year, its their size that depends on water. After a particularly wet winter, flowers in the desert can get tall and appear to cover a hill side in color. Those plants are still there in a drought, you just have to get on your hands and knees and sometimes use a magnifying glass to see them. Flowers are fascinating to me, always have been. The search and history for the world's elusive “first flower” is modern science. Some of the oldest plants and flowers dating back 125 million years are just now being discovered and studied.I've always been fascinated at how flowers open. When I explained my fascination to a botanist, she chuckled and said flowers open because that's where the pollen and reproduction stuff is and she walked away chuckling.Yes, I'm familiar with the birds and bees. I pondered it was probably a liquid transference action that would weigh the pedals to fall back or collapse together.A 2003 paper published in the “Journal of Experimental Botany” by Wouter G. van Doorn and Uulke van Meeteren proved me right, kind of. “Opening is generally due to cell expansion. Osmotic solute levels increase by the conversion of polysaccharides (starch or fructan) to monosaccharides, and/or the uptake of sugars from the apoplast.”The paper explains that some “outrolling” or opening of a flower has to do with cells swelling with water, while “inrolling” or the closing of a flower occurs as the cells dry up. Basically, the flower petals grow or shrink and stay a bud or bloom into a full flower, or yo-yo back and forth. The cell expansion could be applied to petal elongation – basic growth – as the plant grows so do the number of cells and the size of the plant, or in this case petals. The same growth and shrinkage of cells from water could explain flowers that bloom and collapse on a daily basis – water collects in the morning and the cells expand and the flower opens. At night the cells dry up and the flowers close back up, but I'm an English major pretending to be a botanist and insultingly simplifying the process.The process for flowers that open and close with an apparent circadian rhythm is incredibly complex. “The coordination of processes culminating in synchronized flower opening is, in many species, highly intricate. This complex control by endogenous and exogenous factors sets flower opening and closure apart from most other growth processes.”The paper concludes that there is more research to be done and more to be uncovered about the simple act of a flower opening, the process of blooming. Silly humans don't even know how flowers open. This does little for my allergies and runny nose, but it takes my mind off it for a little while. I'm sure new discoveries are in store for why we get allergies and what we can do to get rid of them. These seem like simple questions, and I don't mind being the fool that gets to ask them.